Security Light Help

[evanshaw]

Hi I'm Evan, new to the forum.

Today I was going to replace my security light at the rear of the house, due to the PIR not working.
I believe it feeds off a socket in the kitchen, done by an electrician a number of years back. It also has
a switch for it on the kitchen wall, so it can be switched on manually.

OK, so I opened up the old light, to check the wiring, and this is what I found: -

Electrical Supply Wires Old Security Light Wires
Yellow (with red sleve) -> 2 x White wires (Assumed switched live)
Red -> Brown (Assumed live)
Yellow/Green -> Yellow/Green (Earth)
Blue -> Blue wire + White wire (Assumed Neutral)

Are my assumptions correct?

Now the new light's wires are completely different: -

New security light wires
Brown (Assumed live)
Blue (Assumed Neutral)
Yellow/Green (Earth)
Black (But this feeds back into the light with a brown wire coming out the other side) (switched live?)

Again are my assumptions correct?

Can anyone help, I can turn the light on with the switch, but it doesn't seem to come on, on it's own, with the PIR,

Many Thanks

 

[dingledong]

Do you have any form of tester

 

[nickblake]

Assuming you are correct in your first list of connections

yellow red sleeve is the switch could be marked L1 on the old fitting
Blue neutral could be marked N on the old fitting
green and yellow earth
Red /brown permanent live for the PIR side which may be market L on the old fitting

get the instructions that would have come with the light had have a look what the connections are on the new fitting if in doubt call a spark

 

[evanshaw]

Assuming you are correct in your first list of connections

yellow red sleeve is the switch could be marked L1 on the old fitting
Blue neutral could be marked N on the old fitting
green and yellow earth
Red /brown permanent live for the PIR side which may be market L on the old fitting

get the instructions that would have come with the light had have a look what the connections are on the new fitting if in doubt call a spark

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

No I've not got a tester unfortunately.

It's the connections on the new light switch that have confused me.
i.e. the black/brown loop wires, is this for the switch live connection, I assume my other assumptions are correct, i.e. brown live and blue neutral?

Thank you.

 

[dingledong]

I would think so but as previously said, did the light not come with instructions

 

[telectrix]

trey swapping the L and S/L round.

 

[evanshaw]

trey swapping the L and S/L round.

Hi guys, thanks again for the replies, no, no cabling instructions at all! :-(
Is this to stop non electricians from doing diy?

I'll try switching the L and S/L around tomorrow. I've given up on it now the light is fading.
Thanks for that idea though! ;-)

 

[telectrix]

multimeter on ohms across the N and S/L will read the cold resistance of the lamp. think it's around 80Ω

 

[dingledong]

Evanshaw if it works don't forget to thank telectrix . easy to do and nice to do

 

[nickblake]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

No I've not got a tester unfortunately.

It's the connections on the new light switch that have confused me.
i.e. the black/brown loop wires, is this for the switch live connection, I assume my other assumptions are correct, i.e. brown live and blue neutral?

Thank you.

its difficult to say the black wires could be the old white wires going to the lamp the brown could be the output of the pir can you take a pic and post it on here so we can see the connections

 

[evanshaw]

its difficult to say the black wires could be the old white wires going to the lamp the brown could be the output of the pir can you take a pic and post it on here so we can see the connections

Hi yes, good idea, I'll take a pic tomorrow and post it up.
I'll do it before I swap L and S/L so you can see what I've done so far.
But please don't laugh :-D lol!
Thanks

 

[evanshaw]

Hi Guys, I took some pictures. First one is with the old light in place.
I did this incase I needed it before messing about: -

As you can see across the top, the cable coming into the light fitting, left to right
Yellow (red tipped sleve), Red, Yellow/Green and then Blue

Across the bottom, left to right (the light's own cabling)
2xwhite, Brown, Yellow/Green, 1xwhite+1xblue

 

[evanshaw]

OK, now with the new light fitting.
I swapped what I thought was L and S/L around as suggested, it didn't make a difference unfortunately:-

OK, different angle this time: -

Cable feed is coming in from the right this time, so what we have is
top to bottom
Yellow (red tipped - lost the sleve), Blue, Yellow Green, 1xRed + 1xBrown ( <- N.B. this brown was already there)

And the light's own cabling, again top to bottom
Brown (obscured), 2xBlue, Yellow/Green, Black

 

[evanshaw]

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Richard Burns]

I would say that you have the line and switched line around the wrong way, but if you say you have swapped these and it does not work then I would say that your PIR is faulty, whether because of other wiring arrangements you have done or out of the box is difficult to say.
The original light fitting had identification of the terminals which is not readable in the picture, the permanent line would be L, the switched line would be something like L*, L', X.
If you have similar markings on the new light then this would enable you to be sure of the correct connections.

This is how I would expect (but not guarantee) the wiring in each light should be.

 

[evanshaw]

I would say that you have the line and switched line around the wrong way, but if you say you have swapped these and it does not work then I would say that your PIR is faulty, whether because of other wiring arrangements you have done or out of the box is difficult to say.
The original light fitting had identification of the terminals which is not readable in the picture, the permanent line would be L, the switched line would be something like L*, L', X.
If you have similar markings on the new light then this would enable you to be sure of the correct connections.

This is how I would expect (but not guarantee) the wiring in each light should be.
View attachment 26049

Thanks very much for that. I will take it off tomorrow and return it to B&Q for a replacement.
Cheers.